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The Museum’s Collections document the fate of Holocaust victims, survivors, rescuers, liberators, and others through artifacts, documents, photos, films, books, personal stories, and more. Search below to view digital records and find material that you can access at our library and at the Shapell Center.

Videotape testimony of Celine P., who was born in Zgierz, Poland, one of four children. She recalls her family's affluence; visiting relatives in Warsaw; a close and large extended family; attending a Polish school; antisemitic harassment; German invasion in September 1939; her father's flight east; exemption from deportation due to an uncle sending foreign visas to her, her mother, and siblings; assistance from a former nanny who worked for the Gestapo; transport to Belgium via Berlin; reunion with their uncle who had arranged their emigration; traveling to Paris where "everything was back to normal"; moving to Montrabé; attending a Catholic school; German invasion; her mother's death from cancer in June 1942; placement in a convent with assistance from her uncle's associate; a Jewish organization supplying them with false papers; their transfer to northern France in 1944; living in a home for children whose families had tuberculosis; liberation by United States troops in August 1944; returning to Paris; resuming her studies; difficulties concentrating after confirmation of her father's death; emigration to the United States in 1952; and marriage in 1958. Ms. P. notes many kind French people to whom she attributes her and her family's survival; receiving letters from her father until December 1940; continuing contact with her nanny; and visiting Poland in 1989.

Author/Creator

P., Celine, 1928-

Published

New York, N.Y. : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1993

Learn about over 1,000 camps and ghettos in Volume I and II of this encyclopedia, which are available as a free PDF download. This reference provides text, photographs, charts, maps, and extensive indexes.